PM Shehbaz Sharif travelling to Saudi Arabia at his personal expense: Pakistan govt

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif might be travelling to Saudi Arabia on a business flight at his personal expense, the federal government mentioned on Tuesday, refuting allegations that he’s taking with him a giant entourage, together with his 16 members of the family, on state bills.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb, responding to allegations by leaders of former premier Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) about the price of the tour, criticised them for spreading “lies” about prime minister Sharif’s maiden journey to Saudi Arabia.

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“Contrary to lies being propagated by the PTI, the Prime Minister will be travelling to Saudi Arabia later this week on a commercial flight at his own expense,” the minister tweeted. “Even during his 10 years as CM Punjab during 2008-18, he always travelled commercially and at his own expense,” she added.

The Prime Minister is leaving for Saudi Arabia on his maiden official abroad journey to Saudi Arabia on Thursday the place he’s scheduled to carry talks with the Saudi management. On the sidelines of the go to, Shehbaz would additionally go to Mecca to carry out Umrah pilgrimage. Shehbaz, 70, was sworn in as Pakistan’s twenty third prime minister on April 11 after his predecessor Imran Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote.

According to studies, round 40 individuals will accompany the prime minister on the official go to. They included 16 members of the family, a few of them will be part of the prime minister from the United Kingdom and Dubai.

Aurangzeb mentioned that the prime minister was occurring a business flight and all members of his entourage can be on their very own expense. PTI chief Fawad Chaudhry alleged in an announcement that the prime minister is carrying a heavy entourage on state bills.

Rejecting the allegations, the data minister suggested Chaudhry to not make “baseless statements against journalists as no media person was going to Saudi Arabia at the state’s expense.”

Aurangzeb went on to say that the “fake news was the hallmark of the former information minister”.

She said that the media used to give prominent coverage to former prime minister Imran Khan when he was in the Opposition, but after coming to power he targeted and victimised them. “Now after being thrown out of power in a disgraceful manner, the PTI leadership is maligning the media,” she mentioned.

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